Rowe U.S. Pat. No. 2,716,555 discloses a locking arrangement for a drill chuck wherein a locking lug is slidable laterally into and out of engagement with the drill chuck nut to enable motor torque to be utilized to open and close the chuck jaws. Haviland U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,776 and McCarthy et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,325,166 disclose the use of a sliding collar carried by a drill chuck spindle, spring biased towards the front of the chuck away from the drill, and provided with lugs on their rear surfaces for engaging mating lugs on the drill housing. In these latter two patents, however, the sliding collar is keyed to and utilized to lock the spindle against rotation so that the locking collar may be easily manually rotated to actuate the sliding chuck jaws. Other keyless chucks for powered drills, especially for portable electric drills, have been previously suggested but have not found widespread acceptance. Rather, keyed chucks have been more popular, even though the need for a key has been found disadvantageous.